Saturday, December 15, 2018

Please scroll down. A little further down on this blog today is a press release from the City issued by Mr. Ben Kerr, PIO. And it’s worth noting the wildly popular and exciting Nutcracker Trail Scavenger Hunt continues until Friday, December 21st.

Today at noon begins the festivities in the Cultural Plaza. Tonight at 6:00 is the 53rd annual Christmas and Holiday Parade in Downtown Lake Worth Beach.

Let’s take a stroll back in time. . .

To another Christmas Parade in December 2009, a YouTube video by Tom McGow*:

Click play and enjoy.And remember. This video was produced nine years ago when YouTube was still a mystery to a lot of people.

The news is about the 53rd Annual Christmas and Holiday Parade in Downtown Lake Worth tonight. News about Santa and a FREE raffle for new children’s bicycles, entertainment and crafts, road closures and much more.

Mr. Kerr is the City’s public information officer.The news is headlined,

City of Lake Worth
Annual Holiday Parade

The City of Lake Worth
will hold its 53rd Annual Holiday
Parade on Saturday [TODAY] in Downtown Lake
Worth. The parade starts
at 6 p.m., however holiday
themed activities will be
ongoing from noon.Admission is FREE and
everyone is welcome. This
year’s parade is a “Nutcracker
Holiday Parade”
and will feature nutcrackers,
ballerinas and more.Prior to the parade
the Kiwanis invite all to
a Holiday Wonderland in
the Lake Worth Cultural
Plaza from 12–5 p.m. The
Holiday Wonderland will
feature live entertainment,
photos with Santa,
bounce houses and craft
vendors.At 4 p.m. the City of
Lake Worth Recreation
Division will be hosting
a free raffle for new children’s
bikes in the Cultural
Plaza. This year the
raffle is only open to Lake
Worth residents residing in
zip code areas 33460 and
33461, entrants will need
a drivers license, state ID,
or Lake Worth Utility Bill
to show proof of address.
Entrants may register in
the Cultural Plaza from 11
a.m.–2 p.m. Entrants must
be present in the Cultural
Plaza at 4:00 to win.To accommodate the
parade route the following
roads will be closed from
1:00:

Federal Hwy. from 10th
Ave. North to Lucerne Ave.

Lake Ave. and Lucerne
Ave. from Dixie Hwy. to
Federal Hwy.

2nd Ave. North from Dixie
Hwy. to Federal Hwy.

Federal Hwy. from Lake
Ave. to 1st Ave. South.

The Lake Worth (Robert
Harris) Bridge will remain
open during the
parade.

The roads will reopen
following the parade. The
City apologizes for any
inconvenience caused and
encourages those traveling
to plan accordingly.Contact Ben Kerr, the
City of Lake Worth PIO,
with any questions or comments
at 561-586-1631 or
email: bkerr@lakeworth.org

The theme for this yearis The Nutcracker.

Congratulations to reporter Emily Bloch:

Published on page B1 in yesterday’s print edition of The Palm Beach Post.

See excerpts from that Special Report below about the eradication of invasive Muscovy ducks from a Village of Palm Springs neighborhood.

But there is something missing and it’s not the reporters fault. It’s something the editor(s) should have caught. More about that later on.

First an update.

Now with Bloch we are up to two more future candidates to be the City of Lake Worth’s next beat reporter. Emily Bloch is a former reporter at the Sun Sentinel. And to say Bloch has a problem with plagiarism is an understatement. Bloch once wrote:

At FAU, if I get caught plagiarizing a paper, I’ll get an F. It would go on my transcript and on a repeat offense, I could get expelled.

Of course, this most recent news from Bloch will soon be fodder for Frank Cerabino and hopefully Bloch will be properly credited. You may recall that kerfuffle about the “Zombie Alert”. Another young lady, former Post reporter McKenna Ross was never properly credited although it was Ross who first broke the story that shortly afterwards went viral all over Planet Earth.

And also keep in mind former Post journalist and once-City of Lake Worth beat reporter Chris Persaud has made a triumphant return as well. Mr. Persaud recently made page A1, above the fold in the Sunday paper, in a collaboration with school reporter Andrew Marra.

Ever since GateHouse Media has taken over at the Post many have been waiting for some big changes.

GateHouse saved the Post and the Shiny Sheet too. Now it’s time for bold new ideas.

PALM SPRINGS — Amei Francesco-Folsom arrived home on a Thursday afternoon to find blood all over the streets in her Palm Springs neighborhood. Her husband, Greg, informed her the blood was from neighborhood ducks and she subsequently called her town’s maintenance department to have it cleaned.However, she soon discovered it wasn’t there by accident. The Lakewood residential community is removing ducks — violently.

However, the story is much more complicated. This duck is invasive. Disturbs native wildlife. People are feeding them. And that is creating an awful mess. Now back to the story:

According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Muscovy ducks are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty act, but a control order issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service supersedes that protection. The control order (USFWS 50 CFR 21.54) allows Muscovy ducks, their nests and eggs located within areas outside their natural range — including Florida — to be controlled. Further, the ducks can legally be killed by a firearm, on private property during daylight hours, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission states.

The invasive Muscovy duck problem brings back to mind when the invasive Australian pine was a big topic of debate in the City of Lake Worth. Although a threat to native species such the Gopher tortoise, marsh rabbits, and songbirds a City resident went to great length to save a problematic Australian pine but in the end, the City prevailed and the tree was removed.

Another problem of high concern is the prospect of having a mild Winter. The Sun Sentinel, The Coastal Star, and other news outlets have reported about the looming plague of iguanas, but as yet this potential plague of iguanas has yet to make news in the Post. To control the population of iguanas what is needed is 2–3 days of very cold, near-freezing weather. They get too cold, lose their grip and fall out of trees which in itself is a public safety hazard. The public needs to be informed about iguanas; this is also very important because according to the Fish and Wildlife Commission:

[I]guanas are not protected in Florida — except by anti-animal cruelty laws. It is legal to shoot them [invasive iguanas] on private property during daylight hours with the property owners’ permission — but everyone should check with their local law enforcement agency about local laws regarding firearms before discharging them.

WARNING: DO NOT HUNT IGUANA within municipal limits or in unincorporated areas in Palm Beach County with a shotgun, rifle, handgun, crossbow, bow and arrow, blow gun, or any weapon that fires a projectile unless you contact PBSO first (or your local law enforcement agency) and find out what the rules are.

Without further ado. . .

What is the problem with this news story published yesterday on page B1 of the Post?

A question for those of you reading this blog post today: Do you know where the “Lakewood residential community” is? You know it’s in the Village of Palm Springs. But where in Palm Springs?

The editor(s) at the Post needed one of their graphic artists to create a map for their readers and the public. They’ve done so for many other stories of interest in the past.

From reading the story in the Post believe this is where the Muscovy duck problem is roughly located:

The Lakewood community appears to be east of Congress Ave. and west of S. Florida Mango Rd. and between the east-west L8 and L9 canals managed by the Lake Worth Drainage District. Between these two canals is what looks like a lake, referred to as Lake Arbor, but it’s actually a water retention pond. And when water is released from that pond, for example during times of storms and/or hurricanes, that water with all that duck goo drains east towards Lake Clarke Shores and the City of Lake Worth, then into the C-51 Canal and then out to the Lake Worth Lagoon (aka, the Intracoastal).

Could all that duck goo have been a contributing factor in this year’s ‘red tide’? A very small possibility but one worth considering. Possibly a researcher could look into this angle. And as reported in the Post duck goo contributes to pond scum. β-methylamino-ʟ-alanine (BMAA) has been found in pond scum. BMAA has been called, “[A]n arsonist in the human brain”.

Stay tuned. There is much more to this story.

Maybe in a follow-up to this news from reporter Emily Bloch, possibly as early as in the Sunday paper tomorrow, the editor(s) at the Post could provide a map to better inform the public where this invasive duck problem is occurring.

If that doesn’t happen check back to this blog on Sunday or Monday. Will provide a map at the top of the right-hand column.

For this reason and many others long-time Florida humorist and writer Dave Barry honored this City the “Best. City. Ever.” at a recent event in of all places? You guessed it. West Palm Beach. A city without a beach. They always wished they had a beach. But they don’t.

The race this year should have been called the ‘Palms Marathon’. The athletes saw a lot of palms but not a beach to be seen in Palm Beach County.

Imagine you were from Buffalo, NY, and came down to race in the Palm Beach Marathon and when you returned home had to tell everyone you didn’t see a beach?

“How did the beaches look, Sparky?” And the solemn reply, “Don’t know. I didn’t see one.”

Have you contacted the Cultural Council in Downtown Lake Worth? Contacted Discover the Palm Beaches?

To learn more about this year’s “Palm Marathon” without a BEACH, and who to contact and remedy this problem, click on this link for a blog post from earlier this month. Bring the 2019 Palm Beaches Marathon to Lake Worth Beach!

The blog post below is one that’s re-posted every 2–3 months since it was first posted back in 2010. This blog began in 2006 and the letter from Cpt. Stafford remains one of the most requested all time. Many of you have read the letter from Capt. Wm. S. Stafford (Ret.). Some of you many times.

But for new residents of this little City of Lake Worth the letter below gives an interesting perspective in the context of history.

First, a short excerpt, the entire letter is below:

“Dad also had larger water mains installed downtown, thus lowering the fire insurance rates, and gave Lake Worth the best drinking water in the State”.

The streets, sidewalks, and other infrastructure long-ignored and under-maintained for so many decades is now being addressed following the passage of Lake Worth’s Neighborhood Road Bond in Nov. 2016 and then the passing of the County ¢1 sales tax increase.

The public decided to tax themselves because we needed to fix our streets and sidewalks. The first Neighborhood Road Bond in August 2014 failed by just 25 votes. The majority on the City Commission — Mayor Pam Triolo and commissioners Scott Maxwell and Andy Amoroso — decided to go for a second Road Bond in Nov. 2016. That one passed by a “whopping 69%”:

“I want to thank the commissioners who have been sitting on this dais longer than I have for having the courage to go for this twice. And I want to thank the voters who approved this. Because this is really going to transform our City.”—Quote. District 2 Commissioner Omari Hardy from a City Commission meeting on Jan. 16th, 2017.

I hope you find this informative and worth your time. One of the most-viewed posts ever on this blog, the letter from Capt. Wm. S. Stafford (Ret.) from 2010:

Capt. Wm. S. Stafford (Ret.)

Master of Science Degree (AvSciTech)

Commercial Pilot ASMEL

Instrument Airplane

FCF Flight Engineer C-130B, E & H

Airframe Mechanic

Royal New Zealand Coast Guard Boatmaster #37155

Canterbury,South Island,NEW ZEALAND20 January 2010Mr. Wes BlackmanDear Wes;I visited your blog site last night and found it quite interesting.I also found the historical slide show [see below] of Lake Worth that you put together with what appears to be sincere dedication and due diligence on your part even more fascinating. Well done!Thank you for making the images available to former Lake Worth residents. Many of those sights I had only in my fading memory from years ago, but seeing them again really balances the perspective of the ‘then & now’factor in the element of times passed.My father was Jim Stafford; by that I mean Lake Worth’s then-youngest mayor who was elected in 1953. Dad was instrumental in many now-forgotten improvements in the Lake Worth of the 1950’s & 60’s. He worked with Russell & Axon Consulting Engineers in the context of better water quality, water treatment, and electrical power. I’ll send you his obituary shortly.

My grandfather was William M. Stafford, the owner and publisher of the long-gone Lake Worth Leader newspaper. He purchased the newspaper from P.O. Gorder in 1922. My family of Stafford’s from that era saw the Florida land boom, the bust, and survived the 1928 hurricane on what is now 7th Avenue North & North ‘K’ Street. He was referred to by his family as ‘Chief’, He was appointed Fire Chief of the Everglades Fire Control District on 7 December 1941.

He closed-up the Lake Worth Leader in either the late 40’s or early 50’s, and went to work for the Palm Beach Post Times, retiring in 1964. He passed away 30 October 1981 at age 93. He was an avid hunter, fisherman and taught me about practical survival living in the Everglades.

I donated a few items to the Museum of Lake Worth, and I enjoyed seeing Beverly Mustaine. I do hope that she in time will cover Lake Worth’s next 50 year period in history from the 1940’s to the 1990’s with a follow-on book to her original.

I recently wrote to Eliot Kleinberg and Lake Worth resident Robert Mykle congratulating them on their books of historical record concerning the 1928 hurricane.

I have also been in touch with Jim Stafford (Lake Worth Talk) and his dad Larry in the recent past. The parallels of our different family lines are coincidental and amazing.

I was born in WPB, then raised and schooled in the Lake Worth of the late 50’s and 60’s. I attended Barton Elementary, and the now-gone Lake Worth Junior High School, and LWHS Class of ’73.

My time in Lake Worth was simply due to my parents living there. I consider Okeechobee and Buckhead Ridge to be my U.S. home beginning when I was 10 years old. LW and Okeechobee are very different worlds when compared to each other.

I left LW in 1973, volunteering for service in the USAF whilst Vietnam was still ongoing. I retired in 1990 as a Service-Connected Disabled Veteran. I flew C-130’s and simultaneously held part time jobs in General Aviation.

My Mother taught at Forest Hill High School, (1958-1982) where Jim’s mom Mayra is now the principal.

As I have read the blogs, LW websites, etc., much of the same political and socio mechanisms never seem to change. This adds credence to the observed phrase that “The more things change, the more they stay the same”.

BTW, my Dad and attorney Bill Martin were great friends. Is this the same Bill Martin who wrote in your blog?

With regards to the Lake Worth Casino, I believe that Dad had a bond issue to upgrade the Casino in the early to mid 1950’s. I remember going there in the early 60’s and distinctly remember the pools being salt water. The wooden pier came a few years later.

Dad also had larger water mains installed downtown, thus lowering the fire insurance rates, and gave Lake Worth the best drinking water in the State, and their own affordable electricity from the city-owned diesel generators. He was also quietly instrumental in getting rid of the rest of the Jim Crow ordinances in his administration and bringing in city water and paved streets to what was then considered to be ‘colored town’. The museum has quite a bit on file, as does the city historian, I’m sure.

Friday, December 14, 2018

And Vice Mayor Pro Tem Scott Maxwell had some very strong words for a critic last night (see video below).

At last night’s City Commission Special Meeting the referendum on the sale of public property in the Downtown, 501 Lake Ave., also passed unanimously.

This City has a sad legacy.

That is instead of educating the public to defeat a referendum, for critics of this City the objective was instead to confuse and misinform the public. One example is what happened in August 2014. Because of fear-mongering and confusion the Lake Worth 2020 Bond vote failed. By just twenty-five votes. A man with a PhD had a lot to do with that bond vote failing.

It took almost two years to educate the public about the facts. Then in November 2016 the Neighborhood Road Bond passed by sixty-nine percent. More about that at a later time.

Once again, as happens all too often, some critics of renaming this City as “Lake Worth Beach” have suddenly come up with other plans to fix the problem. Like working with the U.S. Post Office. But that will never solve the problem. Unless you’re a demographer, work for Fed-Ex or deliver mail most don’t look at a place and see a zip code; they see a place and see a name. As it is now “Lake Worth” almost reaches the Florida Everglades.

Stay tuned. Soon we’ll examine what happened in September 2014 at a Joint City-County Workshop.

Interviewed were former (term-limited) County Commissioner Shelley Vana, experts from the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council, the PBC Business Development Board, the PBC School District and Dept. of Economic Sustainability, the president of Palm Beach State College, and representatives from the municipalities of Atlantis, Lantana, Boynton Beach, Palm Springs, Lake Clarke Shores, Greenacres, and others.

When asked what the City of Lake Worth’s challenges and opportunities were they concluded:

Have more community redevelopment; work with other cities to find grant initiatives; provide
more housing availability; more business investment. Branding is important [emphasis added].

These experts did not mention zip codes.

They said, “Branding is important.” And interestingly, they did not mention “The Arts” either.

In short, what is “Lake Worth Beach”? It’s called branding. It makes us unique. Every city, town and village in Florida has a zip code. But how many have a beach?

From my seat, the view inCity Hall chambers last night:

We needed new ideas many years ago. Not eighty-eight days before Election Day on March 12th, 2019.

Below is more information where to purchase tickets, either online or at a location in the Downtown.

Many of the cottages on this tour are featured in The Cottages of Lake Worth book. This City of Lake Worth is home to over 1,000 historic cottages, the largest concentration of historic cottages in Florida, and located within minutes of the spectacular Lake Worth Beach.

Of note: Sorry to say, but this tour is not apropos for children or pets.

For those who wish to learn more aboutThe Cottages of Lake Worth.

The tour taken by APA members included the Lake Worth Historical Museum, historic cottages south of the Downtown, and spending time with City officials including Mayor Pam Triolo and Lauren Bennett from the Dept. of Leisure Services. And of course Helen Greene at the Historical Museum.

Many planners on that tour were surprised to learn that West Palm Beach does not have a beach!

In conclusion, debunking one of the biggest myths of all.

Our City of Lake Worth and the City of Delray Beach have had a friendly rivalry for a very long time. But that oft-used line about Lake Worth ‘becoming another Delray’ is a complete myth. It could never happen. And there are several reasons why which include geography, western annexation, population, and most significantly, where the exits off I-95 are located.

Thursday, December 13, 2018

Yesterday, waxing eloquent, in a joint editorial by GateHouse Media and the Post they wrote, “[R]oadways don’t know municipal boundaries” and then today. . .

On page A1 of the print edition, below the fold in a prominent photo caption, are the words “in Lake Worth” about a business that is not ‘in Lake Worth’. That business is located in the Village of Palm Springs but just happens to have a ‘Lake Worth’ mailing address.

An editor should have caught this and changed it to “in Palm Springs” in that caption today. Don’t expect a correction tomorrow. The editor(s) at the Post don’t do that kind of stuff. They should. But they don’t.

And interestingly, just yesterday an editorial was published by GateHouse Media and The Palm Beach Post on the topic of the Palm Beach Planning Transportation Agency headlined, “To curb fatalities, collaborative effort needed for safety of Palm Beach County pedestrians”.

Then there was this from the editorial, when the wheels fall off the bus, so to speak.

Our county continues to grow and still heavily relies on cars, sport-utility vehicles and trucks to move around. . . . [H]eavily-traveled roadways don’t know municipal boundaries, and neither should solutions to this issue.

And at public comment tonight please be nice and respectful to the Chair, Mayor Pam Triolo.

Below is a video from journalist Andrea Marvin at CBS12 which sums up quite well what is going on.

Tonight at City Hall, 6:00, is a scheduled Special Commission
meeting. This is a public meeting to set the ballot for March 12th,
2019. The candidates for Districts 2 and 4 will be formally announced
and the two referenda will be officially sent to the County Supervisor
of Elections.

LAKE WORTH, Fla. (CBS12) — Changing the City of Lake Worth’s name to the ‘City of Lake Worth Beach’.

It’s a move leaders are ready to make after city commissioners voted unanimously [at regular Commission meeting, Dec. 4th] on the change. But in the end, it’s up to voters.

“But in the end, it’sup to voters.”

Everyone should understand. Even Weetha Peebull.

To read the entire text of the CBS12 (WPEC) news segment click on this link. The video produced is at the end of this blog post.

Just to be clear. Tonight at 6:00 is a scheduled Special Commission meeting to set the ballot for March 12th, 2019.

And just on schedule a really dumb Letter to the Editor got published in The Palm Beach Post. Do not get upset. This is completely normal. The editor(s) at the Post typically
publish stupid letters ahead of big news, e.g., the City Commission
this evening sending the referendum about “Lake Worth
Beach” to the Supervisor of Elections.

Expect a lot more silly letters to get published in the Post up until March 12th, 2019, when this referendum question is decided by the voters.

Also it needs to be noted it was Andrew Lofholm at NBC5 (WPTV) who first broke this story last month about renaming this City to become “Lake Worth Beach”. For Lofholm’s most recent news report from last Tuesday evening at City Hall click on this link.

But there remains a small group, an element who are still claiming that renaming this City is ‘silly’ and asking one open-ended question after another. Others are claiming the City’s borders will change. Nonsense. Claims the City will be constructing walls. Crazy nonsense. And others are suddenly coming up with ‘better ideas’, many years after this debate began.

As stated many times before, changing the name of our City of Lake Worth to “Lake Worth Beach” is not ‘silly’. It is a very serious public policy debate. So much so this news is already getting attention from policy wonks around the state. One could look at this City as a test case for how other municipalities go about rebranding themselves, repairing their image, and setting a new course for the future.

So one can expect a significant press and news media presence at Lake Worth City Hall tonight.

Here is the 2½ minute video produced by CBS12 (which follows a brief commercial message):

The news is about the 53rd Annual Christmas and Holiday Parade in Downtown Lake Worth this Saturday, about Santa and a FREE raffle for new children’s bicycles, entertainment and crafts, road closures and much more.

But first, before we get to the news about the Christmas and Holiday events this Saturday, something needs to be cleared up.

There was a confusing Letter to the Editor published in the Herald today that also gets some facts wrong about the City Commission Special Meeting at City Hall tonight vis-à-vis renaming the City of Lake Worth to become the “City of Lake Worth Beach”.

Here is the first paragraph written by Mr. Richard Stowe, the Chair of the City’s Tree Board:

It is with cruel irony that our most senior city representatives, Amoroso, Triolo and Maxwell, who have spent
the better part of the last half-dozen years deriding the
Casino makeover and its adjacent 47-year-old pool, now
appear to be poised to force a vote [emphasis added] on a proposed city name
change to “Lake Worth Beach.”

“[P]oised to force a vote”? What does that mean?

And on the ultimate of ironies, our neighbor to the north is West Palm Beach, West Palm Beach does not have a beach. Maybe they should have a referendum to remove the “Beach” and let it be just “West Palm”? And the tree-friendly village of Royal Palm Beach has no beach at all.

Stowe’s letter is four paragraphs long. Let’s just tackle the first paragraph today and will try and keep it brief.

Mayor Pam Triolo, Vice Mayor Andy Amoroso and Vice Mayor Pro Tem Scott Maxwell are not just ‘city representatives’ — they were all elected and re-elected multiple times by the voters — board members are not elected by the voters. However, they also represent this City and are appointed by our elected leaders. By my count there have been at least four public meetings in which this topic was discussed. Tonight will be the fifth, at least. The voters will decide this question on election day, March 12th, 2019. Along with Commissioners Herman C. Robinson and Omari Hardy every vote thus far had been unanimous to move forward with this referendum. And there was never a “Casino makeover”. It was 94% demolished. The “adjacent 47-year-old pool” is condemned. And there are a lot of other things that need to be cleared up. We’ll save that for another day.

Anyhow. To the news by Mr. Ben Kerrpublished in the Herald today.

Mr. Kerr is the City’s public information officer. The news is headlined,

City of Lake Worth
Annual Holiday Parade

The City of Lake Worth
will hold its 53rd Annual Holiday
Parade on Saturday,
Dec 15, in Downtown Lake
Worth. The parade starts
at 6 p.m., however holiday
themed activities will be
ongoing from noon.Admission is FREE and
everyone is welcome. This
year’s parade is a “Nutcracker
Holiday Parade”
and will feature nutcrackers,
ballerinas and more.Prior to the parade
the Kiwanis invite all to
a Holiday Wonderland in
the Lake Worth Cultural
Plaza from 12–5 p.m. The
Holiday Wonderland will
feature live entertainment,
photos with Santa,
bounce houses and craft
vendors.At 4 p.m. the City of
Lake Worth Recreation
Division will be hosting
a free raffle for new children’s
bikes in the Cultural
Plaza. This year the
raffle is only open to Lake
Worth residents residing in
zip code areas 33460 and
33461, entrants will need
a drivers license, state ID,
or Lake Worth Utility Bill
to show proof of address.
Entrants may register in
the Cultural Plaza from 11
a.m.–2 p.m. Entrants must
be present in the Cultural
Plaza at 4:00 to win.To accommodate the
parade route the following
roads will be closed from
1:00:

Federal Hwy. from 10th
Ave. North to Lucerne Ave.

Lake Ave. and Lucerne
Ave. from Dixie Hwy. to
Federal Hwy.

2nd Ave. North from Dixie
Hwy. to Federal Hwy.

Federal Hwy. from Lake
Ave. to 1st Ave. South.

The Lake Worth (Robert
Harris) Bridge will remain
open during the
parade.

The roads will reopen
following the parade. The
City apologizes for any
inconvenience caused and
encourages those traveling
to plan accordingly.Contact Ben Kerr, the
City of Lake Worth PIO,
with any questions or comments
at 561-586-1631 or
email: bkerr@lakeworth.org

And stay tuned. The City of Lake Worth will begin rolling out information soon to the public about the upcoming “Lake Worth Beach” referendum to be held on March 12th, 2019.

Most if not all of your questions will be answered.

Please hold off writing any more Letters to the Editor until you learn all the facts.

Thank you.

And stay tuned for news about what happens at the City Commission Special meeting at City Hall tonight. The meeting begins at 6:00.

Another really dumb Letter to the Editor got published in The Palm Beach Post the other day. Rambling nonsense about this City of Lake Worth on renaming this municipality the “City of Lake Worth Beach”. The letter writer opposes adding the “Beach”, even citing the construction of walls. Walls to keep who in? Walls to keep who out? That is never fully explained by the letter writer.

How does this stuff make it past the editor?

It
may be time to remind the public about Weetha Peebull. Many of you
long-time readers of this blog will remember who Weetha was. So maybe in
a day or two will go back to the archives.The letter writer is a bit unhinged because there is a public meeting tonight at Lake Worth City Hall, 6:00. The City Commission will be setting the ballot for March 12th, 2019 and one of those items will be the referendum on renaming this City to become “Lake Worth Beach”.

Just to be clear. The boundaries of this City will not change! To even suggest that is just absurd.

And the letter writer — one who has special status apparently due to the frequency of silly letters published — is clueless as to why our elected leaders have chosen, every time unanimously, to move forward with this referendum.For one reason why this referendum will be on the ballot next year, please continue reading and Thank You for visiting again today.Without further ado, the blog post fromyesterday was titled,

Kilwins Chocolate is located inthe City of Lake Worthat Lake Worth Beach.

The problem is way too many business owners in this City are losing business to other businesses ‘in Lake Worth’ that are not actually in this City of Lake Worth.

For example, Scheurer’s Chocolate (see below) has a ‘Lake Worth’ address but is not located in this City; Scheurer’s is located in a commercial area in the City of Atlantis, outside the southeast wall that shelters the residents within.

In other words, the wealthy residents of Atlantis can smell the chocolate. They just can’t see it. They can hit this chocolate store with a rock from the other side of the wall but it’s a five minute drive to get there. However, there is plenty of wealth in Atlantis to support their chocolate store.

People complain our stores in Downtown Lake Worth are not getting enough visitors or business. They complain shops and restaurants on Dixie Hwy. are too empty. They complain the Beach could do better.

The irony is. . .

Our Lake Worth City Commission listened and they came up with a plan to draw more of the public, tourists and visitors to this City with a spectacular “Beach” but the complainers complain about that too.

If “Shop Local” is important to you and you support this City of Lake Worth then please support businesses actually located in this City. The “Beach” would go a long way towards educating the public and the press and news media as well.

Take chocolate, for example.

Scheurer’s Chocolate is located across the road from the Palm Beach Park Airport, what some call “Lantana Airport” but that airport is not in the Town of Lantana. It’s located in unincorporated PBC or one could also call it ‘Atlantis Airport’ (see map at end of this blog post).

Now back to Kilwins Chocolate.

Kilwins is an absolutely spectacular chocolate shop and it’s located at Lake Worth Beach next to the City’s Casino and Beach Complex on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean. Kilwins is a must-visit this week and especially so with another Beach Bonfire at the Beach this Friday evening and the Christmas and Holiday Parade the following evening in the Downtown.

And follow Kilwins on Twitter too: They will Tweet out the latest creation like, “We’re making a fresh batch of Kilwins amazing nutcracker sweet!”

However, there is a little confusion. Another chocolate store called Scheurer’s Chocolate is not in the City of Lake Worth. The confusion is this chocolate store has a ‘Lake Worth’ address (5901 S. Congress Ave., zip code 33462) and is located in the City of Atlantis, not in the City of Lake Worth.

The actual zip codes for the City of Lake Worth are 33460 and a small area west of I-95 in 33461.

Hope that clears things up. And also of note: Hoffman’s Chocolates used to have a location in Downtown Lake Worth.

But up against Kilwins they had to close their doors and move out west somewhere.

For reference, the map showing where the Great Walled City of Atlantis is located.

Atlantis is shaded Royal Yellow in the map below, along Congress Ave., west of the County-owned Park Airport.

To the north of Park Airport is John Prince Park, also County-owned. Note that north of Atlantis and west of John Prince Parkis the Village of Palm Springs (shaded spring water blue). All areas unshaded are unincorporated PBC.

Click on map to enlarge.

[Orientation: Up is north.The Great Walled City is to the left (west).]

From Atlantis as a bird flies, heading east of the airport across scenic Lake Osborne, is the unincorporated area called Lake Osborne Heights(a helicopter-aversive community).

Further east, and not disturbed by helicopters, is the Town of Lantana (shaded Verbenaceae-red) and the City of Lake Worth is north of Lantana (shaded Earth-friendly green).

Wednesday, December 12, 2018

There is a very important public meeting of the Palm Beach County Transportation Planning Agency (TPA) tomorrow morning in Jupiter. More details are below.

Our City needs to show a presence. Why? This has to do with the effort to relieve overcrowding in public elementary schools here in this City. This was very big news recently in The Palm Beach Post. Below are excerpts and more information about that. Continue reading for more information.

Let’s digress momentarily.

Interestingly, as a side note, just today an editorial was published by GateHouse Media and The Palm Beach Post on the topic of the TPA headlined, “To curb fatalities, collaborative effort needed for safety of Palm Beach County pedestrians”. A massive and coordinated public information campaign, pushed off for far too long, is sorely needed to educate pedestrians and drivers of motor vehicles alike.

Then there is this from the editorial, when the wheels fall off the bus, so to speak.

Our county continues to grow and still heavily relies on cars, sport-utility vehicles and trucks to move around. . . . [H]eavily-traveled roadways don’t know municipal boundaries, and neither should solutions to this issue.

Now back to tomorrow’s TPA meeting which is of such high interest to this City of Lake Worth.

At the TPA agenda tomorrow to make your voice heard is Item 1I (One ‘Eye’): “General Public Comments”:

General comments will be heard prior to consideration of the first action item. . . . Please complete a comment card, which is available at the welcome table, and limit comments to three minutes.

FYI: The “General Comments” section of TPA Governing Board meetings is when the public gets to speak their mind on issues not specifically listed on the agenda, but. . .

[A]re directly related to transportation planning and funding within the jurisdiction of the Palm Beach TPA.

It would be a very good idea for our City of Lake Worth to have a presence at the TPA from parents, residents, stakeholders and the electeds to make it known that walking conditions for students attending Barton Elementary is a high priority.

And then, if you are able to stay at this meeting, Item 3A is about the, “Vision Zero Action Plan Progress”:

The Palm Beach TPA is preparing an Action Plan for consideration by the TPA Governing Board in March 2019. The Plan will provide actionable strategies and countermeasures the TPA can implement to eliminate traffic-related fatalities and serious injuries in Palm Beach County.

Now back to the City of Lake Worth, our four public elementary schools, and why attending this TPA meeting matters.

In an effort to relieve overcrowding at Highland and South Grade the “proposed shuffle” as reported in the Post of students to Barton Elementary School may be problematic because Barton has been cited as a school in Palm Beach County with “Hazardous Walking Conditions” as was pointed out by the TPA last October.

Once again. It would be a very good idea to have a contingent of City of Lake Worth neighborhood leaders, residents and parents in attendance.

The TPA meeting tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. will be held at the Jupiter Community Center located at 200 Military Trail. Click on this link and scroll down for “2018 Governing Board Meetings”.

And on the ‘proposed shuffle’ of students to Barton the public will be given their chance to speak some time soon at a meeting to be held either at a public school here in the City or at Lake Worth City Hall. However, the date, time and location of that public meeting has yet to be announced. So stay tuned.

Nearly 400 elementary students in and around Lake Worth could be redirected to other schools next fall in an effort to relieve crowding at two schools, while filling empty seats at two others.

later in the article. . .

The proposed shuffle would fill Barton with another 276 students from Highland and South Grade elementaries [sic], while sending another 114 from Highland to Palm Springs [Elementary School].

The neighborhoods that would be diverted include the southern half of the Royal Poinciana Neighborhood just east of the interstate and north of 6th Avenue South. [emphasis added] Those students currently attend South Grade and would move to Barton. Also, two communities north of Lake Worth Road and east of Congress Avenue would be redirected, with one going to Palm Springs and the other to Barton.

Before we proceed to Barton Elementary and that school’s hazardous walking conditions. Here is helpful information.

The public schools here in this City have become a top priority to the PBC School Board.

On November 1st a special meeting was held in Lake Worth City Hall. In attendance were PBC School Board members Erica Whitfield and Debra Robinson, Chief of Schools Keith Oswald, and the entire City Commission including Commissioner Omari Hardy, a public school teacher himself. To learn more about that public meeting — one which got virtually no attention from the press and news media until recently — click on this link.

For reference: A map of the City and to locate places such as the Royal Poinciana neighborhood within the Neighborhood Assoc. Presidents’ Council (NAPC) click on this link.

The NAPC is made up of representatives from fifteen neighborhoods across the City of Lake Worth and serves as an umbrella organization and recognizes that each neighborhood has its own character, unique qualities and each its own challenges. If your neighborhood is not represented by an active NAPC chapter find out how to get started: send an email to napcinfo@gmail.com

Now to Barton Elementary School

Barton is a school of particular concern and was addressed by the TPA on October 18th at the meeting of their Governing Board.

School Hazardous Walking Conditions:

Click on image to enlarge:

To learn more about the TPA and “Connecting Communities” click on this link. For more about traffic and walking conditions in the area of Barton Elementary School contact transportation planner Alyssa Frank at 561-478-5744 or by email: AFrank@PalmBeachTPA.org

Please Note: All the information below was provided at the TPA Governing Board meeting held last October at the South County Civic Center located in suburban Delray Beach.

About House Bill 41, “Gabby’s Lawfor Student Safety”:

Updated to include metropolitan planning agencies in the School Hazardous Walking Conditions analysis process.

TPA has completed analysis of all 107 Palm Beach County public elementary schools.

Florida Statute 1006.23 — HazardousWalking Conditions:

Within two miles of school and attendance boundary.

An area at least 4′ wide having a surface upon which students may walk.

Crossings where the traffic volume on road exceeds the rate of 360 vehicles per hour per day.

Crossings where the total traffic volume on road exceeds 4,000 vehicles per hour through an intersection.

Next Steps

Meet with PBC School District to review profiles and confirm findings and determine next steps.

Work with schools and local partners to plan, prioritize and fund projects to fix hazardous walking conditions.

Once again, about the TPA meeting tomorrow:

“All members of the public are encouraged to attend the meeting and will be provided opportunities to speak.”

Can you believe there hasn’t been a protest in the City of Lake Worth since very early in 2016?

Hard to believe, but it’s true. Almost three years since there’s been a protest in this City.

Let’s take a stroll down memory lane. . .

Do you recall the trailer park ‘forced relocation’ that wasn’t? The ‘curfew’ in January 2016 that never happened either? Read more about those staged protests that both failed spectacularly later in this blog post.

Note that prior to all these ‘protests’ Lake Worth’s former beat reporter, Mr. Chris Persaud, left the Post after being awarded multiple prestigious journalism awards for election reporting. After Persaud left almost a year passed before the Post sent another beat reporter to cover this City and then election reporting returned to normal once again: horrid.

And if you didn’t know The Palm Beach Post was put up For-Sale last year and earlier this year GateHouse Media agreed to buy the newspaper last May. Maybe GateHouse will bring on an ombudsman (public editor) which has been sorely needed for a very long time.

To the question: “Where have all the protesters gone?” Our City hasn’t had a protest since early 2016, protests which began in January of that year and ended just prior to the elections. There hasn’t even been a protest by our friends who live in a local trailer park community in over three years! Is it because Mr. Snarky and all his friends have left town to stir up trouble somewhere else?

Then the next year, in March 2017, we all survived another election season. As you know, City elections can bring out the worst of some in the press and the media. Do you remember, “One of the ways you know it’s getting close to election season”?

There was never a “curfew” here in Lake Worth.That was the Post’s headline editor tryingto stir up trouble:

The word “curfew” is an example of loaded language, “wording that attempts to influence an audience by using appeal to emotion or stereotypes.”

So what happened to all those protesters prior to our municipal elections in 2016? The signs, megaphone, bells, whistles, and banging of pots and pans? The answer to the question is, of course, obvious.

All of that silliness was about our Downtown Cultural Plaza being closed for certain overnight hours, ordinances created by cities and towns all across this nation every day. It’s not unusual despite what some protesters and others tried to claim and it certainly wasn’t “draconian”, or “criminalizing” people, or even as one protester said, “throwing the baby out with the bathwater”. Whatever that was supposed to mean.

Then a little later on the pictures began to arrive via email from all over the world. . .

Translation: “Opening hours of the fountain gardens”. Again, no mention of a ‘curfew’.

Central Park CLOSED!

And remember the “trailer park” protest that turned into a dud? The advice for people back then was if they wanted to see what it’s like to be a protester, they better do it before Election Day. By the way, the next election of candidates in this City of Lake Worth will be held on March 12th, 2019.

You see, all those protests ostensibly about the homeless — who never did get any help from the protesters who were too busy protesting — the protests over trash pick-up at the trailer park, and all the others were just for show. It was all a stage act in front of the press, the TV cameras and the rest of the media who fell for it. Those protests were all about manipulating the results on election day in 2016. Period. And it all failed spectacularly as evidenced by the results: all the incumbents were re-elected by landslide victories.

To learn the truth about that “trailer park” nonsense The Lake Worth Heraldexplained it all quite well. Now. . . let’s take a look back at CBS12/WPEC’s hysterical take on what they thought that protest was all about:

“Seniors argue reduced city services all about forced relocation”*

This ‘story’ was by Israel Balderas in February of 2016, just prior to our City’s elections. Here is an excerpt:

“Hundreds”? There were about ten or so. But isn’t it interesting how much news reporting can change leading up to an election in Lake Worth? And lastly, then came that Palm Beach Post article from last year that had to be retracted:

Click on image to enlarge:

It’s because of reporting like this that some newspapers have
what’s called an ombudsman,or a “public editor”.

Anyhow, stay tuned. Maybe before long the entertainment will begin all over again when the 2018–2019 Election Season begins!

Remember, this is the “quirky” littleCity of Lake Worth!

*When you hear the words “forced relocation” what comes to mind right away? An excerpt from Wikipedia: “The internment of Japanese Americans in the United States during World War II was the forced relocation[emphasis added] and incarceration in camps in the interior of the country of between 110,000 and 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry who had lived on the Pacific coast.”

Tuesday, December 11, 2018

That is how many days since last editorial was published in The Palm Beach Post about our little City of Lake Worth with a BEACH.

The editor(s) at the Post haven’t even chimed in about this City changing its name to “Lake Worth Beach”.

Usually the lineup using the baseball analogy is a beat reporter at the Post writes two stories about a topic (two singles; which was done), then Frank Cerabino chimes in with another single filling the bases and then the editorial board tries to hit it out of the park but which usually ends up a single with a play at the plate and the inning is over.

The last editorial published in The Palm Beach Post about our little City was on August 28th, 2017.

What was it about? Find out below.

Anyhow, on the topic of “Lake Worth Beach” there is an important public meeting this Thursday (Dec. 13th at 6:00), a Special Commission meeting at Lake Worth City Hall. To read all about it click on this link.

Now back to editorials, or rather the absence of, about this little City of Lake Worth.

If you didn’t know, once upon a time it seemed like somebody sneezing at City Hall would elicit an editorial about this City. But that all changed in 2017.

That’s right, 470 days. Over 33½ fortnights since this City was topic #1 by the editor(s) at The Palm Beach Post on the editorial page. It was about that time last year when everyone was excited about the upcoming annual L-Dub Film Festival at the Stonzek. That was later cancelled because of a storm that formed off the coast of Africa. You may heard about that. It was later named Hurricane Irma.

And about the same time “Project title, RFQ 17-305” was big news here in the City of Lake Worth but was never worthy enough news to be published in the Post and that news still has not made the news this year. And the words “vibrancy” and “vibrant” were being used to describe the Gulfstream Hotel about this time in 2017 too.

Later, in November 2017, the Post was put up For-Sale and just last May 1st that newspaper was purchased by GateHouse Media. Have you read any news about that lately in the Post? The editor(s) last year excoriated our City officials and electeds over a medical marijuana facility on Dixie Hwy. and now this year medical marijuana is coming to West Palm Beach. So you see, medical marijuana is OK now.

Hard to believe isn’t it? Fifteen months and thirteen days since the last editorial was published in The Palm Beach Post about this City.

It’s sort of late now, but wouldn’t it be nice for the editor(s) to pen an editorial and at least acknowledge all the hard work and accomplishments during Irma last year by the public, City Manager Michael Bornstein, Electric Utility Dir. Ed Liberty, PIO Ben Kerr, the City staff, management and to also acknowledge the elected leadership and their incredible work during Irma?

Remember, the beat reporter covering this City, along with almost the entire staff at the Post, evacuated ahead of Hurricane Irma and didn’t come back until many days later when it was safe to return. However, thankfully for residents of Lake Worth, there were a few reporters at the Post like Joe Capozzi and others from NBC5/WPTV who hunkered in place and helped to get out the public safety news and updates from Public Information Officer Mr. Ben Kerr. Anyhow. . .

Now about that last editorial published about this City last year.

It was a doozy.

But as far as doozy’s go, nothing will ever come close to that silly editorial published in April 2016 that was the subject of a lot of fun, jokes, and even a Letter to the Editor by a City resident titled,

“The City that dines together. . .”

The editorial in August 2017, what was itall about? Find out below.

Without further ado, excerpts from the editorial published in the Post from August 2017:

“As of Friday [August 25th], however, Espinoza [charter school Principal Renatta Espinoza] said she hadn’t been able to contact [Gregg] Roberts and there had been no dialogue.” [emphasis added]

Well. The very next day Mr. Gregg Roberts, the chief executive officer of Modern Health Concepts, defending his marijuana dispensary across the street, located at 1125 N. Dixie Hwy. — a major bustling thoroughfare children should always be warned to avoid — wrote a “Point of View” published in the Post:

“Finally, as a matter of common courtesy, we hope there can be more truth in this discussion. I personally placed a phone call to Academy for Positive Learning’s principal, Renatta Espinoza, which I can only assume was immediately passed on to her attorney, as I received a phone call from him shortly after and we spoke for roughly 30 minutes.”

Seating is very limited.

The author will speak about her book: John Horse: Florida’s First Freedom Fighter. John Horse (1812–1882) was a fighter of African and Seminole Indian ancestry who fought in the Second Seminole War against the American Army.

In 1842 then-Colonel William Jenkins Worth declared victory when the defeated Seminoles were forced far into the Florida Everglades seeking safety from the American forces.

As a side note, the Town of Lake Worth was incorporated in 1913 which included the Beach. As the Seminole’s retreated many from the Town of Lake Worth from places up north headed west and draining the Everglades as they went creating what would later be called John Prince Park, further to the west the City of Atlantis incorporated in 1959 and the Village of Wellington was incorporated in 1995.

I’ve heard stories from people telling me they used to ride air boats from John Prince Park through swampland and muck out to what later became Wellington. And now there is a new place even further west called the ‘Agrihood’ of Arden. And the march west continues.

Now back on topic. . .

Does the American military commander “Worth” sound familiar?

Colonel Worth later became General Worth. Both the City of Lake Worth and the then-freshwater lake called Lake Worth were named in honor of General William Worth.

The original Town of Lake Worth formed in 1913 and the once freshwater “Lake
Worth” is now called the Lake Worth Lagoon, a brackish waterway between
the City and what some like to call ‘The Island’ of Palm Beach.

And briefly, this City’s long military history delves into the topic of topophilia from the Greek topos (place) and -philia (love of ):

[I]s a strong sense of place, which often becomes mixed with the sense of cultural identity among certain people and a love of certain aspects of such a place.

Which explains why there is so much interest in renaming the City of Lake Worth to become the “City of Lake Worth Beach”. It’s the Beach which defines this City is so many ways, as opposed to all those unincorporated areas west of the City with a ‘Lake Worth’ address that wish they had a beach.

The Lake Worth Historical Museum is located in the Cultural Plaza, on the 2nd floor of the City Hall Annex (414 Lake Ave.). FYI: Outside the Annex is the City’s Military Memorial Monument dedicated on Veterans Day last year.